For the couple years that I have had a blog, I have had to move in January. First to Texas, then to Pennsylvania, then to our current house. Every January. It marked something, it's given me anxiety that I haven't had to leave in 2018 yet. That this, finally, is my real home. My roots are small but they are growing. But I'm still taking January slow out of habit.

Our Christmas tree is still up and I'm okay with that. The small jingle of the baubles has become comforting to me as we stampede downstairs in the morning - me for my coffee and the dogs for their morning fried egg. It will come down next week, but I'll miss it around here. It, too, has become a familiar face, a friend, a reminder that time moves on and snow melts and it'll be Spring soon and then Summer and I'll hardly remember the gentle comforts of keeping a conifer in my home.

There are vestigials of the holidays all around the house - a bit of ribbon I haven't tucked into a shoebox, the holly wrapped around the taper candles in the dining room. But one so small, so inconspicuous hides above the pantry cabinet in a bag: a mix of Hershey's party-sized candy. I've eaten the Kit-Kats and the Reese's were gone within a day. Picked through, all that remains are the Whoppers that neither of us care too much for.

Nutty, sweet, and a little bitter at the end, I couldn't find a use for them until I was playing around with a cookie dough recipe earlier this week. And with a little tahini and big flakes of salt, it was the perfect marriage of a candy I otherwise am not too fond for. And maybe there's an allegory there, maybe there's some kind of holiday sustainability I'm in right now; but maybe there's not and that's okay, too.

Malted Milk Ball Cookies

Makes 1 dozen

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup AP flour

1/2 teaspoon flaked sea salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 stick unsalted butter

3 TB tahini

1 cup light brown sugar

1 egg, room temperature and beaten slightly

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Roughly 30 malted milk balls (Whoppers), crushed

Directions:

In a small bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together

In a stand mixer (or by hand), cream together butter, tahini, and sugar until light

Add egg and vanilla, beat for another minute or so

With mixer on, slowly add in your dry ingredients (I actually did it on low and a spoonful at a time and I think it came together better than dumping in)

Finally, stir in your Whoppers

Place in fridge and rest for 1 hour

While dough is finishing up resting, prepare a cookie sheet with parchment or a Silpat and preheat oven to 375*F

Roll out a dozen dough balls, each about 1 1/2 to 2 TB of dough and place on baking sheet